It has been an interesting month, and I can't really find a proper place to start.
We finished our discussion about Death of a Salesman and wrapped it up. I found my second look at the play interesting as I was enlightened to many things that I had missed before. Examples include how the tape recorder represented reality and the discussion about tragedy and whether or not Death of a Salesman really is a tragedy. Learning such new things from something I had already read is always entertaining. Different points of view, different opinions. We also discussed things that I had learned back in American Literature, such as Uncle Ben offering Willy a job in the wilderness, where one's fortune is tangible. It was really enjoyable for me to mix these old and new ideas, forming a different view and opinion of a text I had already read. I didn't really agree with the theme statement that our class constructed at the end, but it was true. I felt, though, that some evidence was either ignored, or not placed with enough weight, such as the cause of Biff's disillusionment, and the interactions between Willy and other characters. There was more, I feel, that we could have dove into.
Our discussions, by the way, was mostly in the form of a "fish bowl" where a select few discussed the text whereas the rest of the class watched and remained silent. I believe I was highly disrespectful during this exercise, as I did not fully adhere to the mandates set by Ms Holmes. I was also disrespectful to my peers, as I had, multiple times, tried to cut in the conversation with little respect for my peers' opinions, which where probably more valid then my own. So, I'm sorry. I did find the fish bowl (or shark tank, as 1st Hour seems to prefer) exercise interesting. One learns by listening more than speaking, so it was interesting to listen to others, especially to those who don't talk often. I know that sounded a bit hypocritical coming from me (I still remember Mrs. Gunns making me yell on front of the class to cure my quietness) but I feel that in AP Lit., there is no excuse to not speak. Letting our opinions be heard is essential, and it could help us as a class understand literature better. Just a thought.
Oh, yeah. Ms Holmes has been slamming me on the quality of these blogs I have been writing, and upon further review, I believe she was right to do so. Many things I have said were inappropriate and uncalled for. So, yeah. Sorry guys.
Among the smaller activities the 6th Hour Elephantacocks have been doing was an analysis of a poem, "The Century Quilt" and two pictures. I had immense difficulty writing the response essay about "The Century Quilt" and I was rather disappointed with myself. You know, the kind of disappointment you get when you take a SAT and finish thinking "Well, I kind of had no idea what I was doing". I barely wrote a single paragraph, even the second time around. The second bloody time around! I just kind of sat there, not knowing what to write. It was kind of embarrassing because I had somebody to my right and left scribbling furiously while I still had nothing to say. I spent weeks blasting through someone else's essay and now I can't write one myself? I suppose I was too much of a perfectionist. I wanted to perfectly convey my thoughts on the poem, so discarded thesis after thesis, sentence after sentence. Isn't it ironic? In trying to get something perfect, I ended up writing the worst essay of all.
The two pictures we analyzed to stretch our atmosphere and mood muscles. These exercises hailed back to the time of our first week when we analyzed those two paintings. The writing that our class came up with to describe the cave was rudimentary, or even elementary. Too focused on writing adjectives instead of creating an effect. But it was a start, and a good one.
The latest news from the front: we finished Hamlet. I could see why many consider this as Shakespeare's greatest. The hidden meanings, the language, the effects. It sure is a chunk of literature. I sure am grateful that Ms Holmes helped, no wait, did all the deciphering. I really look forward to seeing what more of Hamlet we could extract.
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ReplyDeleteHi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteYou did a much better job this time around with covering all the material we have done this past month. Somehow, I am not too surprised you were bursting to comments during the fish bowl discussions. But, like you said, it's helpful to simply listen to what others have to say. I also thought we gained much more from our analysis of Death of a Salesman compared to our analysis in American Lit. It was interesting to see how much deeper we can delve into a piece of literature if we just use our close reading microscope. Yeah, it's hard to be a perfectionist when you have to write in essay in so little time. It'll just take a lot of practice to overcome that challenge. I, too, found Ms. Holme's deciphering for Hamlet extremely helpful - I guess we'll see how much we can do with our annotations and discussion. Always interesting to read your posts, Andrew! Keep up the great work!
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteGood post Andrew. I thought this was a pretty good summary of what has happened and I really liked how you addressed what we’ve done and then threw in your personal opinion of it. Nice job connecting Death of a Salesman this year to when you read it in American Lit and stating some of the things you caught in this read through. I too was burst to say my opinions and comments during the fish bowl discussions, you’re not alone there, and I really liked that you said, “One learns by listening more than speaking” as I’m finding that very true in this class. You’re also not alone in struggling to write about “The Century Quilt”. Like you, I think I was trying to be a perfectionist, but don’t be embarrassed about just sitting there, I did the exact same thing. Hopefully we’ll get better at this right? I haven’t read any of your past blogs, but after review your blogs from November, they’re looking good to me.
I like how your voice shines through in this response. And while I am a big proponent of self-deprecation humor, I think you're taking it to a place where it's not humor any more. I think you mean what you're saying, and it is disheartening to hear you so hard on yourself about this class. You don't have to apologize to anyone for your own hardships while writing these blogs, rather you just need to listen to your peers (as it sounds like you have been doing) and work on getting better and I'm sure you will get there :) You did a very good job including everything we did in class and connecting to other classes. For example you mentioned talking about this in American Lit., and I was not reminded of our discussions, but rather reading your comments made me think that our AP Lit. discussions are on a whole other level, a much more in-depth level, than we ever were in American Lit. I also like what you said about learning from listening, and I think that is also true, but then I agree with what you said after that, saying that there isn't really an excuse not to talk, so that others can learn by listening to YOU! :)
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